Saturday: Last Day of the Regular Season

May 21, 2011 - In the last day of the regular season, Irondequoit traveled to Fairport for a 10-7 win. Other make-up game winners included Hilton over Brockport, Brighton over HFL, Geneva over B-H and Penn Yan over Livonia.

-- On the second day in a row, the sun shone brightly and the contest was exciting and powerful as the Irondequoit Eagles visited Red Raider country and won a 10-7 victory over Fairport. The highly anticipated game was moved from an earlier rainout and played as the last regular season game for both teams on the "extra" day built into the schedule by Section Five Lacrosse. Both teams entered the game with 12 wins and 3 losses.

Fairport scored first, to thunderous cheers as senior attackman James Manilla scored the first of his two goals in the game on a drive from high above the box center in the first minute of the game. After a couple of transitions up and back, Irondequoit tied the game with a unassisted goal by junior middie George Jerman who ran the ball from the left top of the box, right to the goal. His goal, at 8:00, was followed by a goal at 7:33 when, Irondequoit won the face off, and after moving it behind the goal eventually returned it to senior midfielder Matt Wolfe who drove the goal. Wolfe, who scored twice in the game, won a majority of the Eagle's 15/22 face offs. Sensing a momentum swing, Fairport went quickly to work, scoring less than a minute later from the face off. Jerry Warner drove to the crease and when the Irondequoit slide came, dished the ball to Manilla.

The score was tied again, but only for five minutes. The Eagles scored two goals in less than a minute just before the end of the quarter. During a Fairport clear, junior attackman Nick Doktor picked off a defensive pass and ran back to take Fairport goalie Blaze Riorden in a one-one-one with 1:36 in the quarter. Doktor (2g-1a) found Wolfe open on the crease at 0:29 giving the Eagles a 4-2 lead after the first quarter.

There was no scoring at the start of the second quarter, but lots of transition and ground ball opportunities which were fiercely combated. Irondequoit scored first, their only goal of the quarter, when Emmy Poccia found Doktor near the crease and on the far side of the Fairport goalie. Down 5-2 with under four minutes in the half, Fairport mounted an exciting return, with a string of three unanswered goals to tie the teams at halftime. Sophomore middie Jay Vakiener started things off for the Red Raiders sweeping right across the front of the goal and throwing a side arm shot past Irondequoit junior goalie Eric Fisher. Two minutes later Blaze Riorden found himself unguarded during a Fairport clear and took the ball to past the midline and almost to the restraining area before making a pin-point pass to Stephen Danylyshyn (2g) who was cutting from the left. Riorden often found himself unguarded during clears and made a number of trips from his goal to the opponent's half of the field. Hays set up the next goal with a feed to junior middie Brian Martin. Hays drove hard along the goalie's left alley and threw a hard cross-crease pass to Martin who was alone on the far post. The goal, with 18 seconds left, tied the two teams at 5-5.

The third quarter was controlled by Irondequoit when four unanswered goals gave them a 9-5 lead after 36 minutes of play. The Eagles started quickly with their first goal just 45 seconds into the quarter. Greg Coholan came into the game during a live substitution, receiving the ball near the midfield line just after entering the field and sprinted to the goal for an unassisted goal at 11:45. At the ten minute mark junior attackman Jake Schmidt found a cutting Emmy Poccia on the opposite side of the cage, giving the Eagles a 7-5 lead. The Red Raiders had some ball time, but their shots were generally limited to outside ones as the Irondequoit defense used patience combined with aggressive hand-checking when the Red Raiders got too close. Behind the cage, Max Kostyk found Greg Coholan high and out front. Coholan took one step and leveled a blazing side arm shot high and off stick to give the Eagles an 8-5 lead at 7:24. With just over 55 seconds left in the quarter Doktor hit again, this time with a shot from inside the wing.

In the fourth quarter, Irondequoit had a great deal of ball time, and were warned to "keep it in" a number of times. In each case they were still successful at taking time off the clock. With mounting pressure for a goal, Fairport took a number of shots that were well off the goal and a few resulted in turnovers. The Red Raiders however did score the first goal of the quarter, at 6:01 when the UNC bound, Drew Hays, took a feed from Pat VanBortle who only needed a step before taking the score to 9-6. Irondequoit took more time off the clock, but stopped Fairport's momentum with another goal by Nick Doktor, this one at 4:36. Doktor started at the top of the box and after beating his defender, spun around the sliding defenseman and took a shot that got by Riorden. Fairport tried to get back in the game when Danylyshyn received the ball from Hays, finishing the scoring in the game with Irondequoit the 10-7 winner.

Both goalies performed well today. Riorden had 14 saves for Fairport and Fisher had 16 saves for Irondequoit. Both Irondequoit (13-3) and Fairport (12-4) will now wait until tomorrow to see where the two highly seeded teams will be placed in the Class A tournament for the Red Raiders and the Class B tournament for the Eagles.

-- Hilton scored the first two goals of the game and never trailed in their 14-3 win over Brockport. The Cadets scored eleven unanswered goals spanning the second and third quarters. They had nine different players make the scorebook. Leading the charge was junior midfielder Cory Endres (6g-2a). Midfielders Kyle Youngman and Harald Juergens led the team in ground balls with seven each. Endres (6) and Alex Milliken (5) also contributed to the count. Mark Detroia finished with 8 saves (73%) for the Cadets.

-- Brighton dominated the last three quarters of play to erase an early 7-1 deficit on their way to defeat HF-L 13-8. The Barons scored the final eight goals and twelve out of the last thirteen. HF-L controlled the first quarter before slowing down in the second and remaining scoreless in the entire second half of play.

Playing a significant role in the turnaround was CJ Wool. Wool finished with seven goals for the Barons, including a stretch of five goals in a row taking the Barons from trailing by one to leading by three. Brighton had six different players make the scorebook. Joining Wool were Kurt Minges (1g-4a) and Alex Lebowitz (2g-1a). In the cage, Jordan Carey finished with 10 saves. Senior midfielder Max Brauer did well at the face-off draw. He finished 16/21 (76%) for the Barons.

Leading for HF-L were attackmen Connor Flaherty (2g-1a) and Jason Boike (2g). In the cage for HF-L, Nick Beniamino finished with 12 saves and Stephen Leonard finished with 2 saves.

-- Geneva traveled this morning to Honeoye High School for a 16-1 win against the Pride. Scoring three unanswered goals in the first and then adding nine more before the half, the Panthers had ten different players on the offensive book. Leading the list were Will Brennan (2g-6a) and Sean Cunningham (4g-2a). Derek Grillone had 9 saves for Geneva (14-2).

Geneva reported that the B-H goal was scored by Allen Smith. No report from B-H.

-- Penn Yan scored the first nine goals of the contest in their 19-2 win over Livonia. The second half started with Penn Yan leading 13-1. Leading the charge for the Mustangs were junior Dylan Yonts (6g-6a) and freshman Rion Davison (4g-2a). In the cage, freshman Brandon Maciejewski and junior Matt Spoor split time. Both goalies recorded two saves.

For Livonia, sophomore Josh Wester and junior Cody Cisco each scored one goal. Sophomore Derek Bishopp finished with one assist. In the cage, Ethan Jamison recorded six saves and Joe Simpson recorded two saves.